Memory - Explanations for forgetting

Question 1

What is interference theory?

Answer 1

Forgetting because our memory blocks another, causing one or both to be distorted

Question 2

Explain the two types of interference theory

Answer 2

Proactive - older memories already stored disrupt the recall of newer memories
Reteroactive - newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories

Question 3

Evaluate interferance theory

Answer 3

✅ Empirical evidence - Postman study
1 group had to learn a list of paired words and another group a second list of unpaired words. The control group had better results of words

✅ Effects of similarity - thought to more likely occur when memories are similar. Chandler stated students who study similar subjects experience interference

❌ Artificial material - list of words

Question 4

What is retrieval failure theory?

Answer 4

A form of forgetting that occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access the memory. If the cues available at encoding are absent during retrieval there will be some sort of forgetting.

Question 5

What are the two types of retrieval failure theory forgetting

Answer 5

Context dependent forgetting - cues are in the environment (location/smell)
State dependent forgetting - cues are inside us (physical and emotional state)

Question 6

Evaluate retrieval failure theory

Answer 6

✅ Supporting evidence - Baddleys deep sea diver study, accurate recall was 40% lower in non matching conditions

✅ Supporting evidence - Goodwin et al, investigated effect of alcohol on state dependent retrieval, found that when people encoded info drunk they are more likely to recall it in the same state
❌ However, a self report study

❌ Baddeley questioned context effects - contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen